There are many different ways to appreciate this exciting, funny, bizarre, and insane Korean action flick, which labels itself an “Oriental Western” in the end credits. You can watch it carefully, maybe take a few notes, try to keep track of the story and characters. You can let yourself get caught up in the sweep of the big, sprawling plot. Or you can play the game of naming other films that it’s spoofing (or paying homage to) as they come flying by.

Ed Symkus

There are many different ways to appreciate this exciting, funny, bizarre, and insane Korean action flick, which labels itself an “Oriental Western” in the end credits. You can watch it carefully, maybe take a few notes, try to keep track of the story and characters. You can let yourself get caught up in the sweep of the big, sprawling plot. Or you can play the game of naming other films that it’s spoofing (or paying homage to) as they come flying by.

Note: It references “The Road Warrior” and “Raiders of the Lost Ark” almost as much as it does “The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly.”

Set in 1930s Manchuria, “The Good, the Bad, the Weird” introduces its triad of titular Korean protagonists straight away. Chang-yi (Lee Byung-hun) is a suave killer who’s searching for a valuable map. He’s the Bad. Tae-goo (Song Kang-ho) is a goofy train robber who stumbles upon said map. He’s the Weird. That leaves the Good: bounty hunter Do-won (Jung Woo-sung), who’s searching for Chang-yi – but wouldn’t mind getting his hands on that map.

Making great use of the Sergio Leone formula of blazing pistols and rifles, falling bodies, chugging trains, full-out horse galloping, extreme close-ups, and a plentiful supply of loud, medium-paced guitar picking, Korean director Kim Jee-woon (“A Tale of Two Sisters”) adds in knives and double axes and spears, along with jeeps, motorcycles, howitzers, and a slapstick-style helping of visual comedy.

No one who either has or is after the map seems to know exactly what it is, but all suspect that it leads to a treasure. One person says, and truly believes, that “the future of Korea depends on the map.” Which is probably why others are also interested in it, such as a marauding group of Manchurian bandits and the Japanese army.

But wait ... there’s the map, and then there’s a copy of the map. Well, it’s a reasonable facsimile made from memory by someone who once saw the real one.

Questions arise: Which is the real map? Who actually has the real map? Those two questions would be enough to keep the story going, but another, possibly more important one is piled on top of those: Who is the notorious “Finger Chopper?” The best thing about the film is that the action is so furious, and the narrative is at times so ridiculous, it’s easy to forget that there are even questions.

When the not-so-bright (but crafty) Tae-goo arrives at the Ghost Market – where people meet to buy and sell stolen goods – he has plans of swapping the map for a load of cash. Oops, he’s forgotten about the Ghost Market Gang, a vicious group of criminals that would rather just take it away from him.

So while Tae-goo deals with problems he’s brought on himself, the Good and the Bad continue on with their own agendas.

Sharpshooting bounty hunter Do-won, who outdoes anything John Wayne ever attempted on a horse, with a gun, accepts the fact that “life is about chasing and being chased.” Nasty Chang-yi really wants to be known as a living legend, and grows more and more frustrated when he finds that Tae-goo is becoming one instead of him.

Even worse news for Chang-yi is that the Good and the Weird eventually team up ... sort of.

With maps in hand, or maybe just due to some mystical Asian sense of direction, the three guys (and let’s not forget the bandits and the army) head, inexorably, to the treasure site and a game of last man standing. Along the way, the film amps up the pandemonium during an incredible chase across the desert, resulting in pure mayhem, accompanied by a horn- and percussion-driven score that, if you chose, you could dance to.

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